A sporting venue probably would not be the first place people would think of to hold a conference, meeting or event. They are a little different to your bog standard hotel or conference centre. Imagine having your conference at Old Trafford, Twickenham or Ascot? Not only, would the sporting fans in the company, feel a little chuffed, but many of these venues have great locations and competitive prices.

Here are a couple of  favourites….

Newbury Racecourse

Newbury Racecourse is located in the centre of the M4 corridor and is easily accessible by all major roads and rail links in the area. The racecourse has a large range of rooms that can cater for events up to 1,000 delegates and also has space for dinner dances for up to 600 guests. (See blog about Christmas parties)

The Berkshire and Hampshire Stand also both offer excellent conference facilities. The Berkshire Stand has over 40 rooms available which can hold between 10 to 120 delegates, whilst the Hennessy Restaurant in the Hampshire Stand is a superb new facility for conferences and dinners for up to 250 guests.

For smaller events The Royal Box is available and is ideal for high profile meetings and dinners for up to 60 guests the area.

The racecourse is very accessible and has over 3,000 free car parking spaces as well as its own railway station which operates Monday - Sunday.

The Emirates Stadium

Arsenal is one of the World’s finest football clubs, doing really well both in the Premier league and Europe, I think they are arguably the best team in the world. They now has an impressive start of the art stadium to match this reputation

Emirates Stadium opened in July 2006 and plays host to 60,000 fans at each home game. The arena has an array of bright, modern and versatile conference and banqueting suites, all with brilliant views of the pitch.

The Stadium has four large flexible spaces that cater for up to 600 delegates. The network bar areas and 150 executive boxes are great for syndiacte rooms or smaller private dinners.

These are just two venues, but if you think of a football team, a racecourse or a rugby ground in the UK they generally have conference facilities. They are often to a very high standard with lots of different sized meeting rooms, often holding 400 plus delegates. One downside, is that they often cannot hold meetings and conferenes on match days or on major sporting events, so don’t set your heart on a venue and leave it to the last minute…as you could be disappointed.